At The Heart of Tale Kingdoms (COMPLETED)

3.2 ELIA

They woke up in their last day of travel to a glistening sunrise, the sky was a deep orange casting the same color on everything around them. Elia marveled at the pretty things she had seen, wondering if Raie will see the same features in his journey. He abandoned me. Raie abandoned me.

Elia and her brother had been close when they were young. He always roamed the land to find a unique leaf, a colored stone or a strange rusty weapon that he would offer to brighten her day. Then, he was taken away at the age of ten, and returned six years later, taller, stronger, distant and gloomy. He never told her why he had left her alone and where had he gone or what he was doing for all those years, that's when the distance began to grow. He left a brother and came back a Stator.

Elia shook the thought away, they had been young and stupid as children and Elia had remained that way. She promised to change that.

The first and his white stallion had turned bright yellow and Blood's every angle looked like she had just stepped out of a pool of silk.
The orange light was no longer peaceful. She looked around filling trapped in the orange crystal mirror that the dead witch used to use. Was that her in the past looking into future? She doubted it. A few leagues away revealed a short line of mountain ranges.
"The sky is very beautiful today." She absently admitted.
"Yes, it is. "
He looked at her again the way Elia had gotten used to being looked at by him, as if she was somehow a mistake.
"We will be in Yth-Ird soon, hurry, we can't enter after sunset."
They charged for half a day in a maze corridor within two bordering mountains. They had slowed their pace to a walk, Elia at the front and The First behind her. Elia tried to notice the crevasses, or a unique mark so she could find her way back but the narrow path kept meandering, and the mountain ridges caved in, casting them in a deep shadow.

She should have felt scared yet Elia didn't. The First's presence was filled with strength, he was strangely able to unwillingly console her by just strolling behind her.

When they got out from the darkness of the peaks' shadows, she dug her heels in. Elia knew she could never go back that path and survive. As her mare pounced into a gallop. Too late, she noticed what was before her.
"Stop." The first shouted.
Elia closed her eyes and pulled hard on her reins. Blood's front legs struggled to stay on land. Elia could feel them losing ground. Every back step that the horse took appeared to crumble under her hooves.

Suddenly, Elia felt something hit Blood on its side and the mare almost fell as it swung to the left.

Elia didn't open her eyes, she couldn't feel anything move beneath her. She must be falling. She allowed herself sight and breathed in relief. She saw Blood was still standing on the edge though there was nothing around her. Her hands were trembling.

"Why did you close your eyes? " The First asked her, his eyebrows pulled together over serious eyes. He didn't look angry nor sympathetic. Elia didn't answer, too startled to speak.
"You could have died. Why did you choose to not see what was right before you, how could have you saved yourself?"

That was the longest phrase The First had ever spoken to her and she wished he hadn't. Elia stared at the ground and didn't answer.

Their winding path from the mountain had ended with a sharp fall, right where the last inclined stone stood. Where the ground had rose, the other had fallen into an empty lake. The first considered her one last time then turned to walk around the edge.

The two mountains they had passed through were part of a circular range that stood sharply in the middle of the red fields they had crossed. The floor between the mountains' ring had fallen to a deep imperfect circle. She couldn't see the bottom of it as it was fully covered with clouds and fog.